Risk

March 31, 2009

What do you want? What do you really want from your work or ministry team? Compliance is fundamental for order it but never takes effort beyond the basics. Achievement is essential but it also doesn't complete the effort. Innovation allows/forces you to begin to stretch and take measured risks. But is there more?

It was IBM who began to challenge their employees and customers to "think outside the box." But that has become, now, an overused cliche that is simply an analogy for innovative thinking. What if thinking outside the box doesn't give you the answers or the process? Is there another way of looking at the needs and how they get satisfied?

Think of a problem as being like a strip of paper and your possible solutions are written out on a line. When you get to the end of the paper you are out of solutions. But, aha, you think. What if we taped the ends together. Then we could continue to write solutions to our problem. That's innovative thinking but soon you see that you are looping on your old solutions and there is another side to the strip for new solutions but how do you get to it? What if the end of the strip was twisted and then joined? Now you've created a continuous strip that in a single line covers both sides of the strip. That's creative thinking and that is called a Mobius Strip.

What do you do when "tried and true" isn't good enough? Christian ministry is the largest and oldest family owned business that ever existed-- two thousand years of "we've always done it this way." In many ways it's been 500 years since the enterprise has had a new idea. Now that's not bad, in and of itself, since our mission has been made clear from the beginning. It's just with that much tradition, change in how we fulfill that mission comes slowly.

In the last posting we said, "When team members are unable to fulfill their roles to meet leadership standards and expectations, and the issue is neither compliance nor achievement, innovation may be what's lacking. Organization or relational barriers may be preventing team members from getting work accomplished. Sometimes working harder and being more careful isn't the solution. Sometimes finding a better way to do the job is what's required. Staff need to be challenged with the fact they have been selected not just to do existing tasks well, but to find better ways to deliver ministry."

However, sometimes innovation is merely repackaging when what's needed is a completely new approach. Christian ministry in North America is facing a unique challenge. More and more people are simply not finding church as we know it to be the solution to their spiritual needs. And, more and more people are not seeing their spiritual needs as important in how they live their lives. Perhaps it's time for some creative thinking and then some creative doing.

Creative doing is distinct from innovation in the fact that while innovation finds ways to do known practices better, creativity finds ways to meet needs in entirely new ways, using new paradigms and looking, perhaps, for different measurements of effectiveness. That's different than being different for the sake of being different. Creativity is effective when there is a compelling need and existing conventional thinking is making no progress and the need still exists.

In order for creative thinking to take place several elements need to be in place.

2. Clear understanding of mission/purpose and how the efforts towards that mission are failing.

3. High tolerance for risk. There will be a lot of trial and error. Can everyone tolerate the inevitable failures of doing something new.

4. Agreement the costs of creativity are worth accomplishing the end goal.

5. Reserve capacity to fund experimentation. Traditionalism is inexpensively exorbitant. While traditionalism is efficient to maintain the potential return on the investment is unacceptably low.

A couple of things to keep in mind if you want your team to be creative.

1. Keep your eye on the mission. When things get rocky there are a lot of distractions out there. Remember why you were created; why you continue to exist.

2. Change your viewing instrument. In addition to seeing the issues through the lens of leadership, look at it from the position of the customer, the recipient or potential recipient of service or ministry. Look at it from the view of the first line employees/ministry workers.

3. Celebrate risk taking yet don't be wasteful or reckless for the sake of risk.

4. Communicate the need and the strategy. Gather the support of the stakeholders. Understand what is likely to happen if "business as usual" is usual.

For the rich young ruler compliance just wasn't doing it for him. Neither was wealth, position or power and the possibility of being a better, more righteous Jew wasn't looking any brighter. Jesus offered him a simple yet totally creative solution to his dilemma. The solution was creative since the ruler had to put something into his life that he completely lacked--selflessness. "Go and sell everything you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come and follow me." There was nothing in the rich young ruler's life that prepared him for that. Jesus asked him, as Paul describes in 2 Corinthians, to become a new creation--to allow the creative, regenerative work of the Holy Spirit to make a new life.

Creativity was too threatening for him. So it is for many today who are presented with the same opportunity for a new life. So it is for many businesses and far, far too many ministries. Without creativity compliance is a prison. Without creativity achievement is a meaningless acquisition of accolades and accoutrement. Without creativity innovation is merely rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Creativity is not the same as organized chaos. Creativity still keeps focus on the mission/purpose but is willing to test the status quo to determine it's structural integrity and relevancy. As a Christ follower and leader when you consider the necessity to find new ways to minister and reach out to the community, how much tradition and traditional thinking remains on the table? What are the standards for taking elements of our orthopraxy--how we practice our faith--off the table? What are the standards for leaving our orthodoxy--what we know to be our faith--on the table? Creativity for variety's sake is dangerous. Traditionalism for security and stability is equally dangerous.

December 08, 2008

On the road of blogging on leadership, life interrupted me. I was driving back from a training session in Sandpoint, Idaho when I came on a horrible head-on collision that had happened only a few seconds before. It was a horrific scence. A baby had been thrown out of a SUV and the mother and a passenger were pinned inside. Almost immediately a fire started under the SUV that could not be put out no matter how hard we tried. It would take 20 minutes for fire trucks to arrive. Every door had been jammed due to the impact. As the flames began to reach into the interior both the driver and the passenger were removed through the side windows. The baby was fine. The mother is fighting for her life and the passenger died on the way to the hospital. The other vehicle was a pickup truck driven by an intoxicated man who had his license suspended in 1986 and had 60 subsequent arrests for driving without a license or driving while intoxicated. He will survive his injuries.

So what does that horrific scene have to do with leadership? It was heartening to see over a dozen people disregard their own safety and comfort and risk their lives for another by trying to save two people destined to be burned alive.

An essential quality for leadership is bravery--the willingness to sacrifice your own personal safety for another. There is no such thing as a cowardly leader. I did not see managers around that SUV that evening. Only leaders. I was proud to have been shoulder to shoulder with over a dozen leaders, many of whom had no idea they had it in them.

Greater love has no one than this: to (be willing to) lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13 (parenthesis, mine)

December 01, 2008

Warren Bennis, in his book, On Becoming a Leader, says, "I tend to think of the differences between leaders and managers as the differences between those who master the context and those who surrender to it." (p. 39) He goes on to say, "No leader sets out to be a leader. People set out to live their lives, expressing themselves fully. When that expression is of value, they become leaders." (p. 104) Iwould add that when people fail to meet the mark of a leader, to master the context, as Bennis describes, they become managers. Ouch! This is not a 'dis on managers, per se. People can be and are very effective managers and serve in many capacities as a supervisor, a lead or a group manager. That's not what I'm referring to. It's the attitude of manager, not the function that is the problem. Check out the attached file contrasting the differences between managing and leading. There is a huge difference and it is all in attitude, not function. Download Contrast of Managers and Leader

A leader without the discipline of a manager introduces more chaos than direction. However a manager without the capacity to positively influence others to take risks, challenge conventional thinking, to push the rules and not be satisfied with compliance is a person way too comfortable with keeping order rather than pushing the ministry envelope.

One of my favorite memories is the reaction of a dear friend and pastor whom I've had the privilege of coaching/mentoring. Early in our relationship I was talking about the distinctions between managing and leading ministry when a sobering thought coalesced in his mind. Like Macauley Caulkin in the movie, Home Alone, he put his hands on his cheeks and exclaimed, "Good grief, I'm a freaking manager."

Managing is not bad, it's just that left to itself the ministry is neat but has no future. Left to itself ministry management degrades to being merely a custodian of ritual.

What is the difference between the attitude of a spiritual leader and that of a ministry manager? As Bennis has pointed out and as I've illustrated in previous posts, it is about having a distinctive voice speaking a clear vision for the future. The voice of the manager speaks to what must be done. The voice of a leader speaks to what can be done. Leadership is about a passion for what could be rather than than a manager's intention to achieve planning mileposts and program goals. It is about leaders who have the courage and conviction to do the right things rather than simply to do things right. And finally, for the leader, it is truly about pushing the envelope; getting people to take risky stretches of faith and to get those who follow to begin to wonder, "what if." The manager does his or her job well when risk is minimized, not enhanced; when people complete their planning goals and mileposts and stay on track. Leaders do their job well when the discipline of managing chaos is present and from that base of stability future vision is implemented.

You may have gained a misimpression. It sounds like the worst thing you would want to be is a manager. That couldn't be further from the truth. Managing is the hygiene of ministry and organizational process. Without it there is chaos, conflict and wasted resources. Every effective leader MUST be a disciplined manager. Where the problem lies is in having an ATTITUDE of a manager while thinking and acting as if you are a leader. It is about attitude, not actions.

Question for Reflection When I feel I've been successful is it because I met my goals and the plans of the ministry (usually measured in "nickles and noggins"--money and attendance) or is it because lives have been changed for the better because of my influence and the efforts of my team?